Increase to benefit 1.2m workers; labor groups hit ‘measly’ hike
Some 1.2 million minimum wage earners in Metro Manila will get a P50 daily wage hike – the highest ever granted by the NCR tripartite wage board.
Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said the increase, which was unanimously approved by the wage board through Wage Order No. 26, will take effect on July 18.
The daily minimum wage rate in Metro Manila will now increase to P695 from P645 for the non-agriculture sector.
Meanwhile, for the agriculture sector, service and retail establishments with 15 or fewer employees, and manufacturing establishments that regularly employ fewer than ten workers, the minimum wage will rise to P658 from P608.
Labor groups, however, said the wage hike was too measly and pushed for the proposed P200 legislated wage hike that was passed by the House of Representatives in the 19th Congress.
“The five P10 coins may be the biggest alms that the wage board ever gave workers, but it is still barya (small change),” Partidong Manggagawa leader Rene Magtubo said.
“With a daily living wage of over P1,200 for a family of five, this increase barely makes a dent in the poverty faced by workers…We urge all workers to unite and join the fight for a legislated wage hike that will genuinely improve our standard of living,” he added.
The Kilusang Mayo Uno also vowed to intensify their campaign for a living wage for all workers.
“We reiterate our call for a legislated living wage of at least P1,200 across the country—a salary that would allow a Filipino family to live with dignity and security,” Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas said.
She said Gabriela and the rest of the Makabayan bloc will continue pushing for a significant, nationwide wage hike and urged workers to build pressure from the ground up to demand what they rightfully deserve.
The Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), for its part, welcomed the latest wage order, saying it should put to rest efforts in Congress to legislate a wage increase.
“We welcome it [wage hike]. The proper way to set wage adjustments is really through the wage boards… that’s the reason they exist in the first place… not through legislation,” ECOP president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. told Manila Standard.
Ortiz-Luis said in the three years since the Senate has been trying but failing to pass a law mandating a P100 per day pay increase, regional wage boards nationwide have already approved a series of wage orders cumulatively exceeding P100 per day.
As this developed, neophyte lawmaker Rep. Raymond Adrian Salceda of Albay’s third district filed House Bill 55 seeking to abolish regional wage boards and replace all locally set minimum wages with a single National Basic Wage.
Salceda filed the bill, titled the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, as the 20th Congress opened yesterday.
Under the current setup, a cashier in Quezon City earns P610 per day while a cashier in Legazpi City receives only P375, he said.
“Equal pay for equal work is a basic principle of justice. This is the way to decongest Manila, reduce poverty in rural provinces, and make economic growth equitable,” Salceda added.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “NCR board approves P50 minimum wage hike.”
